Okay, I sort of lied about last week being the last of the Mexico pictures. It's not only that I have trouble giving up the fun and family connection that we all shared in Mexico, but McKenny sent a link to some of his pictures that he edited and uploaded to Dropbox for us to look at. I decided to add those. I particularly like the "goofy" picture that we all took on the balcony of our condo on our last day in Nuevo Vallarta. Everyone got in on the crazy, including Dad. Shirley got about as crazy as someone with her class and gentility could muster. Way to go, Shirley. We had a great trip with everyone and our memories are strong. I also added some pictures from our Christmas celebration at Don and Alicia's house on Christmas Day.
We pretty well completed our Christmas giving at the condo in Mexico and our small tree here in the house was bare of gifts. Darla bought a few things for Luke and I brought some of our Burns cookies for Earl and Frances and Don and Alicia. Darla also gifted her Mom and Alicia with some Silpada earrings. Don made a Prime Rib that he smoked for the first hour and then cooked the prime rib the rest of the time in the oven. The wood flavor was very subtle and very good. I'm not a big smoked meat fan, but this was very good. We played cards and visited at Don's house.
Darla and I got home after six and relaxed in the hot tub, letting the stresses and worries flood out of our bodies as we relaxed in the swirling 102 degree water. We watched a movie that night and went to bed fairly early. I was up Saturday and off to Cherry Island Golf Course for my first game in December. I had lined up Neil, Boyd and Pamas to play. Boyd suffers from vertigo and had a very bad case on Saturday morning so backed out. Neil and I had bought vouchers for the course ($55 for two with cart), so he decided to back out as well. It was frosty and I was concerned that we would have a lengthy delay, but it was only fifteen minutes and we got off ahead of our 8:20 tee time. Pamas and I played as a twosome and were the third group out. We quickly passed the two groups in front of us and played 18 holes in a little over 2 and a half hours. That is my pace...Hit it and Go!. I shot 84 and Pamas suggested we do a replay for $15. I checked in with Darla who was out doing some after Christmas shopping and didn't pick up. I made a command decision. Pamas an I ate an early lunch and were back on the course by 11:30 for our second 18. It moved much slower and we took 2 hours and 20 minutes to play the first nine. The back none was HORRIBLE and we decided to quit after number 11. We noticed the front nine had no one on it, so headed back over and finished another 9 (our 36 holes for the day) in about 90 minutes. I shot 43 and 40 on the consecutive front nines and posted the 18 hole score and two 9 hole scores for the day. I was pleased with how I played and if I was paying attention, would say that it is a good thing to take a break from golf occasionally. Yeah, right.
I ended up with a very sore back for my troubles and, strangely, got very little sympathy from my wife. I was sore last night, but the soreness seemed to have worked its way out of my body. The pa helped last night for sure.
I have a round on Tuesday at Sierra View Country Club. The guy I was supposed to play with last week begged off when he found out it was cart path only after five straight days of rain. We will try again on Tuesday. I have a tee time at Lincoln Hills Golf course next Saturday and have invitations out to Pamas, Paul and Bryan to play.
It is month and year end this week and we are scheduled to work a full day on Thursday the 31st. I will let the gang go on Thursday as soon as all binders are in and invoices completed. We are still on track for budget this month and I really want to start the new year off with a lunch paid for by the company for everyone. One fly in the ointment is that Wendy will not return in January as planned. Her daughter was born prematurely in November and has an issue where her tumor was removed. She needs to intubate her three times a day to help her expel her waste because of pressure the tumor put on her kidneys. This has to be done throughout the month of January, so she is tentatively scheduled no to be back in February. In the meantime I continue to bang away at her book of business and try not to mess it up.
I did meet this last week with the young man who wants to join my office from a competitor. He is a bright young (28) guy with a millennial attitude. He wants to come in and be a part of the team, but also to come and go as he pleases. I'm cautiously optimistic that he eventually ignores the pie in the sky and sees the major benefit to him to moving from a regional wholesaler to a national and international power wholesaler. The in house underwriting and expertise that we have far out distances anything his current company can offer him. I told him I'd need him to check in with me when he decided to take a day off or go golfing, etc. He shared with Harvey that he was concerned that I was a "micromanager". Jeesh.
Darla and I are hosting a New Years Day party and fixing a prime rib and doing games that day. Darla was a little late getting out the invitations and we have one "No" and one "Maybe" right now. We could end up with a lot of leftover prime rib if no one shows up.
I was able to get both the house cleaned up, the pool and spa cleaned and my car washed this weekend, so it was a successful weekend. I also was able to check in with Darryl, Randy, Jennifer and Steve (Darla's brother in Hawaii), wish then each a Merry Christmas and get caught up on their lives. Dad called us and we returned the call and just got a ring that never went to voice mail. We will try to call him tonight.
That's is for this week. I hope you are all well and have a safe and Christ-filled New Year. Ciao.
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